Pisa/Florence

Our first stop in Italy was Livorno. Nothing is there but you can get to both Florence and Pisa, so that's what we did.

Up first - Pisa. It was really foggy so I was worried we wouldn't get any good pictures. Luckily by the time we got off the bus and walked to the piazza it was on its way to clearing up. I have the useless talent of making the tower appear upright in pictures. I was finally able to get a few pictures where you can tell that it really is leaning. My skills were soon put to shame by Scott. He is the best at taking pictures holding the tower up. He got stopped by a few people in our group to take pics for them and every one was perfect. So impressive!

first view of the piazza. why does the tower look straight? grrr.

it's leaning, i promise.

it's finally leaning!

scott has mad skills

it's really funny to see how many people are taking pictures

pretty flower shop on our walk back to the bus

That was about it in Pisa so we hopped back on the bus to go to Florence. There was a jerky guy sitting in front of me who insisted on leaning his seat back for the 1 hour drive so I had no leg room. It's a good thing I'm short because it would have been way worse if I was any taller.

Florence was alright but I think I would have liked it more had Scott and I explored it on our own. We saw lots of piazzas and lots of cathedrals.

this is where michelangelo's david was originally. a replica is there now.

ponte vecchio

We did go to the Academia to see Michelangelo's David. It was amazing! It's so big and the detail is exquisite, down to the detail of his veins. No pictures are allowed so here is one for you from the internet because I bet you haven't seen enough naked men today.

This in itself was worth going to Florence. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go to the other museums. We'll have to check those out next time. 

The only other exciting thing that happened was I sternly scolded the jerky guy that was in front of me on the bus. While we were waiting to go in to the Academia he was writing on the wall of the museum. Seriously, who does that? One of the employees asked him to stop (I couldn't understand anything more than "idioto" but it was enough to get her point across). He stopped for a second but as soon as she walked away he started doing it again. I had had enough! No one encroaches my leg room and then writes on a building after being asked not to when I'm around! So I stormed up to within a few feet of him and told him he was being immature and inconsiderate considering that we were visitors to the country. No wonder people hate Americans! He did not take kindly to it but I had talked in a stern and loud enough voice that our entire group heard, so I think he was shamed in to stopping. Don't worry, it didn't stop him from illegally taking pictures inside the museum but whatever. All the old people came up to me and told me how awesome I was and that they were glad I gave him a piece of my mind. Me too, old people, me too.